One of the best things about using computers to make decisions is that there is no more of that pesky accountability.

I think "adolescent" is being pretty generous, but little boys, yeah. Even the women.

Sometimes I wish I had a big account for exactly this reason.

Some good historical perspective in this thread. A lot of interesting things happened in England during the 17th century.

Over and over I see the flashy new mineral elbowing out the old classic minerals like #quartz and #calcite and now #kyanite that really deserve the title "best mineral." Not for me. Whippersnappers can wait their turn. Kyanite gets my #MinCup25 vote.

The flew the entire military leadership in so they could see for themselves that the Secretary of Defense is a mouthbreathing dipshit and the Commander in Chief is a senile, weak old man who might keel over at any moment.

Oh please please please. Swing some of that big warrior ethos of yours at Tammy Duckworth, Pete.

They are all in way over their heads, but Hegseth may be the most in-over-his-head of them all.

when i lived in durham, there was a pizza place that we’d go to (Lilly’s, which is no longer there) that had a direct view of this very bridge and boy, did we see some interesting things over the years

If you need a quick explainer.

I can easily believe this, and more specifically that Stephen Miller is doing it.

Here again we see the morality of four-year-olds in action - "moral" means you won't be caught and punished. People who are guided by this toddler morality should not be billionaires, and they shouldn't be making the rules that the rest of us have to live with and by.

I don't expect to sway a lot of votes with less than an hour to go, but this is why I voted for #kyanite.

Yeah, this is worth reposting again.

ICE Nazis in Chicago tried to kidnap a food delivery worker but my man was too fast for those slow bastards

I am waiting to see who will be the first local police department to arrest one or more of these ICE goons. It will have to be a smaller city where many of the cops are locals.

I mean Hakeem Jeffries wears a leather jacket sometimes

Image description: a black & white political cartoon of a store display labeled 'MASS SHOOTING CONDOLENCE CARDS,' divided up by location; mall, school, church, & concert are visible. A bald white man is seen from the back, slightly hunched over, as he looks at a card from the church section.

I'm thinking Hakeem Jeffries got snookered today by Eric Adams dropping out. He was going to endorse him.

Not by any means the only thing wrong here, but the whole idea that people are on their best behavior because they fear being caught and punished is the morality of four-year-olds. And Silicon Valley tech mogul billionaires, apparently.

In this case Congressman, although of course it could apply to some Senators too.

I kind of think pissing off every imaginable constituency in America in the course of a single week isn't the BEST way to launch your Big Bad Fascist Final Boss Crackdown but what do I know

If you think Trump deploying troops in American cities is nothing more than an opportunity to pivot to a completely different subject, you do not belong in Democratic leadership.

This guy is SO damned NOT the person for the moment, it's breathtaking. The whole building is on fire and he thinks we need to keep the focus on the price of eggs. Like if we can just win the '26 midterms we can fix things then.

We taught our raccoons sign language and the first thing they said was "The trouble is, you think you have time.”

I encourage you to watch this with sound on. It would never have occurred to me to give these words a melody, but now I'm wondering what other kinds of art I have failed to imagine.

I hope you guys are following this ongoing drama. If you need an explanation let me know and I'll do my best to get you oriented.

Amelia Earhart is an example of somebody who's done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, I notice.

This is truly comical, but at the same time a reminder that there are many people who are thousands of times richer than you and I will ever be who have precisely no clue about how the world works.

Oh, interesting. It turns out you're actually not supposed to do that.

This could work.

This is what I've been trying to tell you guys. THIS is a mineral. Look at all those atoms of different elements all doing geometry together. Vote #haüyne or be square. #MinCup25

You can say a lot about how much Bluesky sucks but they tried to cancel Dril here and are accusing Darth of suppressing free speech so you know we are COOKING WITH GAS

There really needs to be more focus on this cosplaying buffoon. He has no understanding of why we have a military. The idea of Hegseth telling 800 generals and admirals how to do their jobs would be laughable if it weren't so scary. If there's one place where you need competent people it's the DOD.

Not a story I am deeply invested in, but I see so many headlines saying "new prosecutor will indict James Comey soon" and correct me if I'm wrong #lawsky but isn't it true that prosecutors do not indict people, they ask Grand Juries to indict people? Shouldn't it be "will attempt to indict?" 1/2

It looks like this will be a horse race, so let me just say that #haüyne is a tectosilicate made of paired tetrahedra, each tetrahedron a Si atom surrounded by 4 O atoms except that the two Si atoms share one O atom at one corner. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicat.... #Hematite is just rust. #MinCup25

This is great. In about five years these kids are going to be pointing out that the emperor has no clothes, and they will not change their minds when the grown-ups tell them to shush.

OK, they fixed the bug that wasn't showing the vote count for #mannardite, so now you can go vote for it and watch as the numbers become more sensible. Thanks, #MinCup25 moderators.

Something is fishy here. #Mannardite votes are not being counted (or not being reported, more likely), and the Results summary page says the vote is between #Cuprosklodowskite and #paddlewheelite. Maybe my vote for mannardite is read as a vote for paddlewheelite? I told the #MinCup25 admins.

Important point here.

"I have spent the last few weeks addressing and preparing for a military invasion by the President of the United States. No, I’m not a soldier or a foreign adversary. I’m the Governor of Illinois"

One of those unexpected treasures that we stumble upon from time to time. I swiped a description from the YouTube page and will put it in the comments, edited for length. But just watch it first. Sound on, of course,

Bearing a cross on wheels is a great metaphor for Christian oppression

The entire administration is staffed from top to bottom with television personalities who think they are warfighters, and who think that wars are won with guns blazing and shock and awe. What they are doing is theater. Wars are won with logistics.

Handy summary of today's news.

midthread again, I think you don't need to read the whole thread but you decide, this strikes me as a good comment amid a lot of tired cynicism.

Ice boys can not handle a woman stronger than them, and who doesn’t need the costumes and guns to be strong. It’s like they’re still on the playground, frustrated and angry, unable to mange their emotions.

Reposting from midthread because this is where someone adds alt-text so that people with bad or no vision can see what's being discussed. These AI word-game Foundation Models are terrible at describing images, but if you're reposting text they might work. Please try to find a way to do alt-text.